Wednesday, December 27, 2006

I know this post is going to bore those non-coders. But Oh well.. here goes...

I guess by now, since Blogger has gone out of beta, many would know that the templating system has been slightly changed. The most notable one would be the use of XML and the addition of the xmlns:b, xmlns:data and xmlns:expr namespaces...

Well, for those who use Eclipse IDE, XmlSpy or any other web development tools that accepts custom Schema, I've generated an inferred XML Schema file for the xmlns:b namespace...

Its definitely not complete. I use my current layout as the base to generate the inferred XML Schema... Maybe someone could improve on it. It would be even better if Blogger were to release a schema file to add template developers...

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Ok.. This post is gonna sound like a big rant and most would probably be turned off by the web jargon. Oh well... here goes...

As the title suggested, its about markup languages. Well we don't seem to get enough of it. Although mostly based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML) which made things slightly easier. In fact, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and the reformulated HTML base on XML rules: the XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) is like a subset to XML.

Blogger

With the introduction of the new Blogger beta, is the introduction of a complete set of template-ing tags. It now takes XML tags instead of the classic HTML tags. Not that the support of the old tags have broken, you can choose classic if you want to, but then whats the point of upgrading if you don't use it?

Have you noticed that the you no longer need to wait to republish the entire site or the "Publish Index Only" etcetera? Well, I heard that Blogger works differently now. Instead of having published static files, the files are brought together dynamically before serving up to the browser. When a file is requested, information about the widgets and post and headers are gathered and then a HTML file is generated. It reminds me of PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Adobe / Macromedia ColdFusion and evem the newer Adobe / Macromedia Flex Data services.

Well judging from the namespaces given, it seems that it may be named Google Markup Language (GML).. But then again, GML also stands for Geography Markup Language for those who are familiar with mapping tools.

And by the way, namespaces refers to the xmlns section. In an attempt to explain: "XML namespaces provide a simple method for qualifying element and attribute names used in Extensible Markup Language documents by associating them with namespaces identified by URI references." (Source: W3C) But really namespaces are more useful than that and frankly, I don't know much about it myself.

Its going to take sometime again before I can come up with any new layout that conforms to w3c standards. However, for the quick and easy way of customizations, there is actually a website which already does some hacking into the new blogger beta templates. Hackosphere has some excellent methods and hacks. I use their label widget hack too..

With a 3 new namespaces, I really hope Blogger would release the schema for the namespaces. Doing so is going to make development of the templates even easier. With tools like XML Spy and the excellent Open-Source Eclipse Integrated Development Envrionment (IDE) where it is possible to customize it to use custom schemas (.xsd files).

XSD by the way "is a library that provides an API for manipulating the components of an XML Schema as described by the W3C XML Schema specifications, as well as an API for manipulating the DOM-accessible representation of XML Schema as a series of XML documents, and for keeping these representations in agreement as schema are modified." (Source: Eclipse Community)

And well API stands for Application programming interface. I shan't attempt to go into it and act like I know it well.. because I don't...

Adobe/Macromedia Flex

Well this is something that I am looking into now, ever since the release of version 2 of Flex, and the release of the free Flex 2 SDK. It uses a customized version of XML too. Known as MXML. Again, knowing XML is useful here.It is to be a framework for RIA (Rich Internet Application) development. Flex generates Flash (.swf) files as the front-end.

Its quite free in a sense as you can develop Flex Applications with just the SDKs and a editor of your choice. My favorite is Eclipse, but even Notepad will do.

ColdFusion

Its been in the market for sometime. Can't say much about it though... Never really taken to it since ColdFusion pages require a coldfusion support to be installed on the server.

However, like the rest mentioned here, ColdFusion also has its own Markup Language called the CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language)....

And??... (Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and Beyond)

The list goes on and on and on... There are definitely more out there which other may know and I have not heard of. But the list is definitely growing. The only good thing that comes out of this is that it increases a person's employability to have these skills in the age of Web 2.0. In fact, Web 3.0 is already being disussed.

Web 2.0 is "a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 certain technical and marketing communities have adopted and loosely adapted the phrase." (Source: Wikipedia

Information about the percieved Web 3.0 is still dispersed. But according to ZDnet, Web 3.0 is divided into few secions, namely: API services, Aggregation services, Application services, Serviced clients. There is much that I haven't read about Web 3.0, but for more information, the article on the topic at A List Apart may help shed more light to it.

For now, I guess we'll have to be adaptable to the various languages and look as the web proceeds beyond into semantics, user experiences and controls.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Currently, it seems that the Japanese Ice-cream is all the rage now... with stalls popping out in quite a few places...

I am referring to the Japanese Ice-cream chain: Uzumaki.

Should try it one day. From what I remember, they have green tea (Their specialty) chocolate and chip, wasabi, blueberry and black seasame... I don't know if I remember correctly, but pardon me if I don't...

Here is a pic of the stall at Harbourfront Mall:

Those two gave quite a shock to some kids... because they stand quite still till someone comes by and they "jump out".. I mean they just start moving.. haha

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Went to Ikea, Courts today, but had dropped by Vivocity a few days ago...

1.Vivocity

Dropped by at vivocity a few days ago. And what luck. It was the day when the Singapore Premiere Curse of the Golden Flower (满城尽带黄金). And the guest is none other than the movie's main actor, Chow Yun Fat (周润发).

For a moment, I wished I was on attachment to SPH.. so I could stand on the less crowded platform. You should see how crazy some people are... shoving and elbowing so they could get a better picture... Not that I was a fan, but how often do you get to see a movie star in town? I wasn't the crazy few in front, but I did get a good look... Manage to get a picture...Not that clear though...

(I see many phones... lets leave for the movie!)

Anyway, took a nice walk around the place.. Its huge.. though abit of a bore.. However, the place would do fine for some one-stop shopping... The roof of the place have this pond/pool or whatever you call... I guess they can just take away the "No Swimming sign... it just isn't working. 2 days I went there and I can safely say there has been an increase in the number in the water...I found it incredulous that some even come prepared!! A change of clothes and swimming trunks!!

I know this is abit random, but the entire place on the outside doesn't look very interesting either.. felt that the off-white color of the building was made the whole building look so old and boring with a grey background. A brighter color of white would have been better.. Oh well...

and oh another pic:

(Let's Play HangMan)

2. IKEA and Courts

Can't believe that I actually gone to a megastore's grand opening in Tampines... That partly because wanted to go to Ikea which was situated next door.

I can't imagine when the Giant Hypermart opens next door in the not so distant future. The place would seriously get congested... Then all we need is other stores like carefour to open one nearby and the area will resemble a beehive with cars inching along the roads... That is unless there are still space to inch along.

Saw a familiar sight though... now I know where the school got the snake in one of the classrooms from... It was on sale at IKEA...

Friday, December 15, 2006

I can effectively throw out all my knowledge on the blogger template requirements. The upgrade is causing me a new headache: templates no longer in plain HTML. making use of widgets now, I need to study their XML coding again. oh gosh...

I guess for the time being, I'll make do with this excellent blog template which they adapted from mezzoblue.

Oh.. and sorry about the links... looks like its all gone, the blogroll... need to slowly add one by one...

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

In-Turns... My period as an intern has officially ended... I shan't discuss much about it as the report has yet to be handed up... Like a company's FY status, I shan't reveal it first....

Well as usual, since I've been "working" for sometime and thus didn't update here as much as I could, I shall have a slightly longer post. Categorized of course... So that you may skip parts of no interest...(or probably all.. LOL)....

Lets go GP-style from big to small, starting with: On the News

Well watching the news sometime ago, it was announced that the national museum is now reopened... Like the National Library, it is really revamped and I hope to go there once again... Although I can't remember the last time I've been there already....

Another piece of surprising news was that the gov feedback unit has also revamped itself and officially launch blogs as a means to communicate and gather feedback from the masses... It can be found at http://www.reach.gov.sg/... However, with the attitude and mindset already driven deep into Singaporeans, it remains to be seen whether the blogs will actually gather any momentum.

The lack of momentum can be attributed to few reasons...

People have their own blogs already...

Going through such an avenue with strong association with the government presents some concern...

There is this "hold back and look-see" attitude powering many Singaporeans, driven into our mindsets through generation: "What are the consequences of voicing out?"....

Sure... there is a increase number of people voicing out.. but what continues after the thought stated in point 3 would be: "what are the benefits of doing so?"

With such concerns, it would be sometime before the site would actually take off...

Another much awaited news would be the island-wide wifi network that is free for 3 years as well as the workfare bonuses... I am in no position to comment on the workfare bonuses... However, on the issue of wifi, it marvels me, or rather, it failed to marvel me (I can't really decide) that the take-up rate has been so high, when broadband penetration rate in SG is only 58.9%. It goes to show the power of something being "free".

Free? I go "yar sure"... This is something I don't really think is sustainable without some form of revenue... As what I learnt the past few weeks, or you can put it down to plain common sense, company's exist to make money... (with the exception of non-profit charity organizations)... there must be some way to gain back... Either at the end of 3 years, you'll be charged a nominal fee, or you start getting some form of advertisement the moment you connect to the network or while you roam on the network... Oh well.. only time will tell...

On the Technology side

Intel has launched quad-core chips... and definitely a power user's dream. Now there is a jungle of chips out there.... getting very confusing... With AMD and Intel's different naming systems as well as 32-bit and 64-bit versions of processors, and with Intel having the old Celerons, Pentium M, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 HT, to the newer Pentium D, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme (quad-core), Core Solo... and the list is growing.... Ouch.. my head hurts..

Not to mention Vista has been officially gone into RTM and also released to VLK clients. Likewise for Office 2007 which adopts the OpenDocument format as well as finally has a plugin which supports export to Adobe PDF format.

On the Personal Front

Got a web-development project.. and boy.. my head is throbbing over the implementation... I am venturing into somewhere I've never been... that is adopting the use of a Database (MySQL) and also the use of a preprocessor (PHP)... Ok.. PHP not much of a problem as I am quite strong in the presentation part which uses XHTML and CSS, but there is much to be learnt on the logical layer... And with plugins to a certain system which has to be developed to control the forms and Database, this "one-man-show" seems a bit daunting and a headache... But then again, looking "ahead" at least I got a push to learn what I would otherwise put off: about Database f(x)...

Training has also restarted and we are supposed to have our eyes on the National Schools Tournament. And talking about that, I still haven't get to see the Direct-School-Admission Students... Well... Better start doing the attendance list...